


Stranger Things Have Happened

by Ohnonnynonny



Series: Being Productive By Way Of Not Being Productive [9]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Funny situations, M/M, Meet-Cute, a bit cracky, as usual, no magic, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 12:26:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10189874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohnonnynonny/pseuds/Ohnonnynonny
Summary: In which Merlin unwittingly leads a double life.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the prompt: "I just came out of surgery and I’m convinced you’re my partner but you’re the just the long suffering (and super hot) trainee nurse” AU
> 
> Please excuse my lack of medical knowledge. This is one of my usual short, cracky fics. Enjoy! 
> 
> Not beta'd in anyway. All mistakes are my own. I struggled to find a title that was fitting for this fic and ended up settling for what it is now. I'm done. I'm too tired to proofread again, so apologizing in advance for whatever mistakes/typos there are!
> 
> This story is authorized for AO3 only. It is not to be copied or used elsewhere without my explicit written permission.
> 
> I don't own the characters to Merlin(TV) and am not profiting from this work. Enjoy!

“Hello, Mr. Emrys, my name is Arthur and I’m the trainee nurse assisting the head nurse, Gwen,” said Arthur, closing the door behind him. When he turned around, it was to face a beautifully fey looking man with gorgeous cheekbones.

“I know who you are, silly,” said Mr. Emrys with a grin.

“Y-you do?” asked Arthur, a little confused.

“Of course! I’m not that heavily medicated. I think I’d recognize my very own husband,” said the man, tutting a little.

“Mr. Em—”

“Oh, come on, enough with the Mr. Emrys. Call me by my name already, no need to be so professional,” said the man with a dopey smile.

Arthur quickly checked the patient chart for his first name.

“Merlin—”

“Come here, Arthur, or am I too hideous now because of my scars?” said Merlin, lower lip trembling.

Arthur rushed over, not willing to be the one to make him cry. “You don’t have any scars. You haven’t even been in surgery yet,” explained Arthur.

“I couldn’t let them take me before I saw you,” said Merlin, who then gave Arthur a chaste kiss, wrapped his arms around his waist, and snuggled back into his bed before passing out.

In all that time, Arthur didn’t realize the door was open and that they had an audience. Gwen had a large smile on her face and Gwaine was suppressing tears from trying to hold in his laugh.

“I suppose Gwaine didn’t mention that our patient here is hopped up on drugs. Empty stomach before surgery plus drugs will give you curious results,” said Gwen.

“Gwaine,” Arthur growled.

“Ah, ah! Don’t want to wake up your _husband_ there,” said Gwaine in a mock whisper.

“He’s just jealous,” said Mithian, popping her head into the room. “He wanted to be the one helping out with Merlin.

“Aye, and what a missed opportunity it was, going to waste on someone like the princess,” said Gwaine, with a hand dramatically posed on his heart.

“Alright, alright, enough of that. We have to take Merlin into surgery now,” said Gwen firmly, but still with a smile.

Arthur carefully extricated himself from Merlin, and let the patient be carted away. It was a strange start to his morning, but Arthur's witnessed stranger things on the job, so he didn't think much of it. 

*

A couple of hours later, Arthur made his way back to Merlin’s room to explain a couple of post surgery procedures. Before he could open the door, he heard laughter inside. Hoping that the situation wouldn’t be too awkward, Arthur opened the door.

“You’ve got a few more surgeries to go, but I promise you won’t scar okay?” said Lance.

“You sure about that Dr. Du Lac?” asked Merlin.

“Don’t worry. There will be no leaving of scars that make you hideous to your future partners,” Arthur teased.

“Arthur,” Lance gently admonished.

“It’s okay, we’ve met,” said Arthur.

“Have not,” said Merlin with a pout. “I think I’d remember meeting a prat like you.”

Arthur tried his best not to blush and quickly stammered out an apology. “Sorry, wrong patient. I’m Arthur, the nurse in training that Gwen might have mentioned?”

“It’s not very professional to go around mistaking patients,” said Merlin.

Arthur was spluttered and was about to defend himself when he saw Merlin’s lips twitching.

“Forgive me, I’m in training after all. Looks like Dr. Du Lac has everything in control here. If you’ll excuse me,” said Arthur, gritting his teeth, and left the room.

After that, Arthur avoided Merlin for a couple of days until he couldn’t anymore. He didn’t like feeling embarrassed, but his job would have to come before his pride. Steeling himself, he entered Merlin’s room.

“Hello, Mr. Emrys, how are you feeling today?” said Arthur, reverting back to staunch professionalism.

“Arthur! There you are! Why are we back to Mr. Emrys, I told you you don’t have to be professional with me. Unless, unless this is some type of roleplay. I can get _behind_ that,” said Merlin with an exaggerated wink and a waggle of his eyebrows.

Arthur’s jaw dropped, but he quickly closed it. He grabbed Merlin’s chart and saw that he indeed was on drugs again.

“Come here, Arthur, my dear, my heart, my knight in shining armor,” proclaimed Merlin with grabby hand motions at Arthur.

Arthur let out a long suffering sigh and went over to Merlin’s bed. It wouldn’t be long until Merlin passed out again, so what was the harm in humoring him?

A lot apparently as he found a video clip of himself discussing pet names for his and Merlin’s future dragons making the rounds of the entire Albion General Hospital staff.   

“I’m going to kill Gwaine,” Arthur nearly shouted.

“It wasn’t Gwaine,” said Gwen, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Then who?” Arthur demanded.

“Morgana,” said Gwen.

“How. The. Hell. Did she find out?” said Arthur, massaging his temples.

“Gwaine,” said Mithian.

“I’m going to kill Gwaine,” said Arthur, getting out of the chair and marching over to the cafeteria.

*

The next time Arthur had to speak with Merlin, he marched straight in and snatched the chart from the side of his bed. No drugs.

“What happened to knocking?” Merlin squeaked, blanket shielding everything but his face.

“I’m a nurse. I’ve seen it all,” said Arthur.

“Prat,” Merlin muttered. “You really have to work on your professionalism.”

Arthur wasn’t going to say anything, but he found himself blurting out, “You haven’t happened to see any videos lately, have you?”

“I have actually. Quite an interesting video, actually,” said Merlin with a wicked grin.

“And what was so interesting about that video?” Arthur asked with trepidation.

“Why Arthur, I didn’t know you were such a talented dancer—”

“It was the drugs!” Arthur blurted before Merlin could finish.

“You were on drugs? Well I hope you gave that up for your nursing career,” said Merlin with a confused look.

Then Merlin’s words caught up to him. “Wait, what? Dancer? I was never a— I’m going to KILL GWAINE.”

“Who’s Gwaine?” asked Merlin.

“Who’s Gwaine!? Gwaine is the bloke who showed you that video!” Arthur said, trying to take a deep breath.

“I don’t know about this Gwaine, but Mithian, the other doctor, was the one that showed it to me,” said Merlin.

Arthur gaped.

Gwen walked in and grabbed Arthur by the shoulders to pull him out. “Sorry about this one, Merlin, I’ll be back to let you know what he was supposed to inform you about.”

Merlin just nodded and waved with an amused look on his face.

Out in the hallway, Arthur slumped against the wall. “Why does everyone hate me.”

“We don’t hate you. We’re all just bored and this is the best thing that’s happened since Gwaine woke up with an eyebrow missing,” said Gwen with a laugh.

“That was amazing. I still have polaroids from that night,” said Elena, the resident psychologist.

“Anyway, you don’t have to worry. The dragon video was suddenly found missing this morning,” said Gwen with a wink.

“Have I told you lately, that I love you?” said Arthur with relief.

“She forgot to mention that I’m the owner of the only copy of that video,” said Morgana, strutting into the nurse’s station.  

“I am alone in this hospital and everyone is out to get me,” Arthur mumbled as he stomped away.

*

Today was the last of Merlin’s surgeries and Arthur couldn’t help but be a little disappointed in that. He’s all for the welfare of his patients, but—and he’d deny this to his dying day—he was going to miss Merlin. It didn’t help that the usual banter between him and the drugged Merlin didn’t happen due to the fact that Merlin passed out a lot sooner. Arthur tamped down his emotions and got ready to see Merlin for the last time.

“Mr. Emrys, I’m here to make sure you know everything you need to know before you’re discharged later in the day,” said Arthur, looking at his chart. When there was no response, Arthur looked up to see Merlin, bright red in the face.

“Mr. Emrys are you alright?” asked Arthur, concerned.

“Don’t worry about the young man,” said a gravely voice.

“Do you know what happened?” asked Arthur, facing the second patient in the room.

“I’ve been trying to document my days in the hospital with this blasted video contraption that my niece gave me. I thought it was broken so I’ve asked Merlin here to check it out. For some odd reason, the only clips in here were of the two of you,” said the old man.

“Kilgharrah, I’m so sorry that Aithusa only has my embarrassing moments to watch,” said Merlin.

“Why do those names sound—wait, you wanted to name our dragons after them?” asked Arthur, trying not to laugh.

“Shut up, I hate you!” Merlin squeaked, his cheekbones still flushed.

“You are two sides of the same coin. The half cannot truly hate that which makes it whole,” chuckled Kilgharrah.

“You’re not helping,” Merlin muttered.

Just then a little girl with platinum blonde hair skipped into the room. “Uncle! You’re awake!”

“That I am, young Thusa. Also, I wanted to say I’m sorry I couldn’t make any proper... video diaries did you say they were?” asked Kilgharrah.

“Yep! And it’s okay, uncle. I’ve been checking the footage from my computer and I’ve been really enjoying the married coup—hang on! Is this them!?” said Aithusa in utter excitement.

“About that,” Merlin began.

“Yes, we are the married couple,” said Arthur, taking a seat on Merlin’s bed.

“You’re quite famous at my school, you know,” said Aithusa with a smile.

“How’s that?” asked Arthur a little confused.

“Oh, well, I was originally going to use uncle’s footage for my stories, but since there was nothing but the two of you, I had to make do with what I had,” said Aithusa with a shrug.

“And what, may I ask, are these stories about?” asked Morgana from the door.

“Dr. Le Fay!” shouted Aithusa, running to give Morgana a hug.

“Hello, sweetie,” Morgana said, smirking at Arthur.

“Let me guess, is it about the brave King Arthur and his crazy warlock, Merlin?” asked Arthur looking a bit too smug.

“Nope! It’s about two farmers who don’t really know how to farm,” said Aithusa with a grin.

Arthur could've sworn he heard some snorting and chortling outside.  

“Aithusa sweetie, you must send me a copy of your stories,” said Morgana with pure delight.

“Of course! I’ll email them to you,” said Aithusa with a bright smile.

“Right, so the reason I’m here is to tell Merlin that your mate, Will, called in to say his car broke down so he won’t be able to give you a lift home. Did you want to stay another night, we’re not pressed for space just yet,” offered Morgana.

“That’s silly. Why doesn’t Merlin just wait for his husband to finish work, and they can go home together,” said Aithusa.

“Clever girl,” said Arthur, reaching over to ruffle her hair. “If my husband doesn’t mind the wait, I don’t see why not.”

“Okay, yeah, I don’t mind,” said Merlin giving Arthur a shy smile.

“Who won the betting pool,” Gwaine whispered out in the hallaway.

“If everyone will please excuse me, I have a problem I need to deal with right away,” said Arthur, smiling before whisking out of the room.

A loud crash and muffled swearing was heard.

“Naturally, I won,” said Morgana with a smirk.

“Naturally,” Merlin said shaking his head, but he couldn’t stop himself from grinning the whole day.

 

  
  
The End.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are always welcome :)


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